UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Leon Walker Case: Unauthorized Access of Email is a Felony

On December 27, in an unpublished decision, 2011 the Michigan Court of Appeals decided a case involving Leon Walker's unauthorized access of his wife Clara Walker's password-protected email account. Leon Walker does (or did) work for the Oakland County Information Technology Department maintaining and setting up computers. Following the preliminary hearing, the district court bound Leon over on two charges, one a violation of MCL 752.795, which prohibits fraudulent access to computers, computer systems, computer programs, and computer networks.
The district court found that Clara did not share her computer password with defendant, and defendant did not ask Clara for her information. The trial court said: “Gmail allows a user to create a password which creates an expectation of privacy and creates security for the user. It’s the user that decides who can have access to the information inside of the computer account, which in this case is like a vault.”

Facebook | Divorce & Total Recall

Well, Jane Smith, filing for divorce and asking for primary custody—you think you can avoid some of the stupid things you posted on Facebook a year ago? You think it might never see the light of day—those comments about how drunk you got—where you were, with whom, doing what? Guess again! And think about how Facebook will supplement your resume’ as you begin job-hunting. [See this blog article on Lexis-Nexis' use of Facebook in making decisions about whom to hire.]

Last Thursday (December 8, 2011), Facebook began updating Facebook accounts with a new and revamped profile feature called Timeline. Timeline allows a person with access to the account to see a user’s entire history of photos, links and other things shared on Facebook accessible with a single click. 800 million members of Facebook are about to see just how many digital fingerprints they have been leaving on the site — and on the Internet in general. This will make it more difficult to erase past identities, past comments, past bad behavior memorialized in a moment of sheer stupidity.

Christmas and High Conflict Divorces | Putting the Children First

Bud Dale, Ph.D., J.D., of Topeka, Kansas shared a wonderful true story about high conflict divorce and Christmas on the American Bar Association's Family Law Listserv. I asked for permission to share this story with my readers. It is my hope that family lawyers reading my blog will send this on to some of their clients and that parents reading it will benefit and will share with friends who may be in a similar situation. Bud's story involves Janey, a mother in a high conflict divorce, who attended a parent education class for high conflict families. Bud wrote:

"Janey attended as a result of a court order.  Despite the court order, her ex-spouse did not attend.  Janey stubbornly sat through the first 2 of 6 3-hour classes, before becoming engaged in what we (my colleague and I) were teaching.  She listened intently for the remaining sessions. She asked to come back to speak to the next class and has done so for each group of parents for almost 2+ years. To each group of parents, Janey tells the following story about Christmas:  

How Divorced Parents can Help Children Survive the Holidays

It's time to run that Christmas post again. For those who may be new readers of this Blog, here are suggestions about how to make Christmas better for children. At the end is a link to Donna Ferber's Blog in which she suggests gifts that may help children through the divorce process.

Many children of divorce feel caught in the middle of their parent’s battles during the holiday season. Holidays should be a time for kids to experience the love, joy and magic. Instead, many children are confused, frustrated, sad and angry.

The stress divorce causes children during the holidays: The holiday season may be more difficult than usual for children of divorced or separated families. The excess chaos may cause children to feel anxious. Children may feel caught in the middle if their parents fight about who spends what time where. They may feel resentful when they must leave friends and family to stay with a non-custodial parent.

Divorce, Child Custody & World of Warcraft

A timely discussion among colleagues leads to a new understanding of what World of Warcraft is and why and how it may impact a divorce and child custody case. Attorney Shawn Hunter of Orlando, Florida asked whether the family lawyers in our ABA discussion group had ever been successful in obtaining by subpoena World of Warcraft records. Another lawyer asked why this might be important. I was very interested in the response because I have a child custody case in which obtaining the records will be very important.

Shawn responded:

"Dad says 'I was an attentive, involved parent.  I should have the child most of the time or, at least, 50% to continue in that role as super-dad.

"Mom says 'All you did was play WoW all the time, from the moment you got home until the a.m.  I have been a WoW widow for the last X years. I fed the child, bathed the child, got the child up in the morning, put the child to bed at night, etc.  Why would your care-giving improve now?

"Judge is not wowed by the he said/she said. But WoW records agree with Mom's version of events."

Who's Got His/Her Head in the Sand?

I am not the only person who puts pictures in legal documents!

I've written a couple of briefs in which I've embedded an image or two in the spirit of "a picture is worth a thousand words." Imagine how delighted I was to read Judge Richard Posner's opinion (Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) as he criticized lawyers who ignored or downplayed precedent. Judge Posner's opinion included two photos to illustrate that the appeals filed in two separate cases ignored precedent, or only slightly discussed the relevant case. The pictures frame this post.

Judge Posner wrote: “The ostrich is a noble animal, but not a proper model for an appellate advocate.”

Change for a Dollar | Making a Difference

In these difficult economic times, families are under a tremendous amount of stress, much of it caused by unemployment, necessary relocations, divorce and all of the financial issues that arise in those situations. It's nearly the holiday season. Family lawyers see these issues on a daily basis.

Here's another look at the issues -- sort of a "Gift of the Magi" kind of story. It's very moving. I hope you will find the time to view it.